My interest piqued, the original article was sourced and read. Two things struck me while reading the article about Dennis Popp's blog.

First, the Pilot's writer surely had never read the best Costa Mesa blog ever written: former OC Weekly editor Will Swaim's tasty treat, which can be found at republicofcostamesa.com. And yes, Swaim also wrote about local bloggers in his entries. Log on and read what Swaim, an intelligent, honest-to-goodness journalist, observed about our Mr. West.

Second, it was quite amusing and worth a good laugh when it became apparent through West's references to Popp's blog that West takes credit for inventing the concept of including pictures with text. Wow, what an innovator.

Keep up the good work, Mr. Popp. If West doesn't like you, surely you must be doing something right.

Eric Bever

Costa Mesa

The writer is a former Costa Mesa mayor.

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Motel story was delightful

We truly enjoyed the article on the Kon Tiki Motel ("Warm stays at the Kon Tiki," Sept. 25). Lauren Williams did an outstanding job in writing the article. It was so fun going down memory lane. We only wish our dad, George Markel, was here to enjoy it. He passed away in January. The phone has been ringing off the hook.

Now that the clown car, also known as the Republican tea party, has hijacked the government and is draining our economy of $300 million per day, leaving 800,000 without paychecks and depriving last-chance cancer trials for children at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), they must realize that they are once again on the wrong side of history.

The photo opps by these chuckleheads at the various monuments wearing their flag pins takes the cake. These miscreants are a militant fringe of one party in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, trying to nullify an established law. This is extortion and not the design of the Constitution, as they so proudly claim is divined by God.

These are the same people who do not believe in climate change, immigration reform or evolution. This is the party of angry old white guys who make the Know-Nothings of the 1850s look like enlightened beings from another planet.

They want President Obama to fail, the government to fail and the economy to fail. They do know this: Now that the Affordable Care Act is law, people will like it as they do Medicare. Give it time and again their policies will be proved wrong for America.

So keep listening to Fox News, tea party constituents, and drink your Kool-Aid prepared by the likes of the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove. They have wrecked the car.